E-commerce UI Patterns Touch-Tested

Target let's you customize a large segment on the home screen. Could work on web, too and certainly worth an A/B experiment.

I really like the three categories at the top of Target's native iPad app; the #weekly ad, #the storefront and #targetstyle. They use the same categories in their social media strategy. Also, they are upfront with the shipping costs. Transparency is the new black.

Yesterday I ordered a pen from FiftyThree. Their shopping cart and checkout is very convenient and fast. I looked at my basket and proceeded to checkout. The next page asked me to enter my address — but to my surprise, it was already filled out. So no extra step from Google Chrome asking me if I want to 'autofill' the fields. I like that. Very delightful. Yeah — filling out form fields on iPad could be a big pain...

Amazon's native iPad app is nice, clean and efficient. Less cluttered then the website and products are more 'discoverable'. They have a lot of stuff to put into their main menu, but the designers solved it quite eloquently. See screenshots below.

Great content and visual storytelling — seen on backcountry.com

Say, you spend some time in North America and you are into outdoors, chances are, you ordered at least once/twice some gear from Backcountry.com. They've always had an amazing online store and the new idea of GEARHEADS is fantastic and super on brand. You basically get assigned to a new type of 'customer service' representative that 'shares the passion' with you. She/he helps you find and collect the best gear for your favourite sport and outdoor activities.

I strongly believe in the power of motivating customers come to your physical store (if you got some in a couple of cities). Rei.com empathizes that tactic as much as the online call to action "Add to Cart". It's side by side.

Rei.com's Question&Answer section – seen on the product detail pages – is a good example and alternative (reviews/ratings) to get customers involved in helping each other out. On the other hand — businesses will get a better understanding of their customers needs and desires.

Nice compact HELP widget, from rei.com. The UX designer Samantha Starmer, who I once met at the UX Week in San Francisco did some amazing work for rei.com. The visual design now looks a bit outdated but make sure to read some of her UX strategies applied here: http://uxmag.com/articles/crafting-the-ux-of-reis-retail-experience

Polyvore is an amazing app, built around a supreme combination of great ideas; social shopping, content curation, chat, sharing, liking etc. There are super curators with up to 40k followers. The site let's you create style boards, which you can share publicly. A great way to gather and hunt products that match your style. Similar to Pinterest but users can get a bit more creative.

Wanelo is all about social shopping. At the start, you personalize you product stream and follow other 'stylistas and trend hunters'. I've seen it a lot on fashion apps, but Wanelo pulls in other product categories, too.

Simple and effective filters. Wanelo gets design right.

I like the call out 'Fast Shipping'. I assume a lot of customers care and it makes me excited when I can get something right away.

We know that Zappos is crazy about delivering a great customer service. Their LAB put together a couple of apps to support that business strategy. Make sure to try out 'Ask Zappos'.

Good idea from TopShop: They invite the community to upload images and styles. This could potentially lead to some additional traffic, respectively, a better net promoter score.

Nixon just revamped their website and made it responsive. I like the navigation and the little preview images on the product page — encourages users to keep browsing related products (all within the visible area). The 'heart' is a good placement, too.

Amazon gathered a lot of research insights on their recommended products section. They know that users only click on the first two items and ignore the rest. So if you want to get rid of your stock, you need to be smart where you place the items in the list. Also price is relevant to the product you see on top of the page.